Caitlin's 2nd Birthday Party

Where has 2 years gone?? This post, I'm just going to focus on the party. I'll do another post just about her turning 2.  We celebrated her birthday pretty early in January because Oma, great-grandpa, Mema, and Papa were all in town for Christmas. It just made sense to have it while they could all be here!  I debated for a long time on a theme, but finally decided on Elmo. She likes Elmo and I figured she'd grow out of it soon so better use it while I could.  I found some super cute ideas on Pinterest and thought the party turned out really well.  I'll mostly just post some pictures from the party since I know that's what y'all want to see anyway!

The sign I made welcoming all our guests

This was our veggie tray (supposed to be Elmo's face)

This was the fruit tray 

These were the gift bags for each child 

This was the cake (made by Kelly at Bootstrap Bakery - highly recommend!) 

These were the egg free, dairy free cupcakes also from Bootstrap Bakery 

The two birthday girls (Baba and Caitlin share a birthday) 

 Mama and the birthday girl

Avery and Evan playing in the greenbelt behind the house - this is actually what the kids enjoyed the 

most!! Glad to know they could all be entertained and lucky we had such nice weather. I really didn't know what we were going to do with all these kids at our house.

 Everyone enjoying lunch

 Cake time!

 Lucy is ready for some cake

 Great-Grandpa and C. Christine

 Alex and Evan

 Singing to Caitlin

 Blowing out the candle

 More birthday girls

 Evan and Baba

 Attempt at a picture with the birthday girl but by this point, she was kind of done

Michelle and Brett chasing the kids in the yard and them LOVING it!

It was a fabulous birthday party. I'm so glad our friends could celebrate with us. And a HUGE thanks to all our family who helped me out so much with the shopping, decorations, and day-of party stuff. I can never pull off any of these parties without their help.  They are the best!

NYE in Indy

After Chicago, I headed down to Indy where my mom and the kids were. I was lucky enough to be there for a whole day and see a few of my high school girlfriends and their families.  It's always too short a visit when we get together but I was glad to see at least some of them!

Lauren's mom had us all over to her house where she baked the most wonderful Italian food. And she also made little treat bags for the kids... so sweet!

Hadley giving Caitlin a kiss

 Lauren with cute baby Maxwell

 Daniel holding Caitlin so I can have a break

Angie, La, and me with our kiddos (Sarah was there earlier but had to leave before we could take a picture).

For NYE, we just hung out at Oma's house and the Hamiltons and Hamilton-Lowes joined us!! It was fun to just relax and catch up. The kids had a blast playing together too.

 Playing piano

 Kids getting to watch a movie

The next morning, we loaded up the car and drove back to Texas with Oma and Great Grandpa. It was a very full car and I was squished between 2 car seats, but the kids did great!  Next update... Caitlin's bday!

Chicago!

Just after Christmas, the kids and I flew to Chicago to visit with friends.  We were lucky enough to spend one whole day and night with the Dolvigs.  It was a great time.  Evan wasn't quite himself as he was not feeling well, but we still had fun. We took the kids to a local children's museum (very similar in size to the Austin children's museum).  There, the kids enjoyed playing dress-up.

After that, we headed home for naps and relaxing.  Then, it was off to dinner. We went to a really fun restaurant in a nearby suburb.  We had to wait for a few minutes so we snapped a few pics of the kids.

 Evan and Camden

Making funny faces or something

 Screaming for joy that our table is ready!

Here we are all sitting at the counter. See, this is a very small diner but it has a really neat feature...

A train which brings the food around!! How cool is that! 

Evan watching the train go by. 

 Afterwards, a quick ride on the horse.

The reason we were coming to Chicago was so that I could meet up with a few of my college girlfriends.  My mom drove up from Indy to watch the kids so I could visit with them.  We hadn't seen each other in over 2 years!

 Sarah, 'Aine, Kristin, me, and the kids

My mom took the kids back down to Indy while I got to explore Chicago with the girls and Danny (Kristin's husband). The weather was actually rather nice one day so we walked around town. We stayed at the Amalfi which is very close to Michigan Ave and the river so right downtown.  It was a great hotel if anyone is ever looking. Each evening they had a happy hour and the staff was so helpful and friendly.

 This is at the amphitheater in Millennium Park

 There is this big silver ball like thing (the kidney bean) in the middle of the park that is very reflective. So you take pictures of yourself taking pictures. This was the picture I took of us looking into the bean.

This was from underneath the bean looking up. We are somewhere in the middle there.

Kristin, 'Aine, and Sarah on our beautiful Chicago day

Kristin, 'Aine, and I 

 Sarah, 'Aine, and Kristin standing underneath Marilyn Monroe (see next picture for it to make more sense)

Random statue they have on Michigan Ave

We had a fabulous time catching up and enjoying each other's company.  After a few moments, it's like we hadn't been apart for over 2 years!  We ate some wonderful food, relaxed, had drinks at the top of the Hancock center, and of course shopped!  Hopefully we will be able to do it again sooner rather than later. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

I guess I need to start catching up on some blogging since I still have not finished our Holiday Posts!  In my defense, we only just finished Christmas with all our family last weekend so I'm really only a little over a week behind.

We were here in Austin for the holiday which was nice and fairly relaxing.  On Christmas Eve, we didn't do a whole lot.  I had attempted to make sugar cookies with the kids once already this season and it was somewhat disastrous as I just did not do a good job with the dough. I was determined that we would try one more time and after much consultation with friends/co-workers, I finally thought I had enough information to give it a good try.  So, Christmas Eve morning, we gathered round the kitchen island to try again.  Lo and behold, the cookie angel smiled upon us and we had an awesome time.  The cookies turned out pretty great and we had fun. 

Preparing for rolling out the dough

Here was our setup - we just did them right on the granite counter tops

Close up of my lil' helper!

And my other helper! In case you can't tell, they both had flour all over but that's the point, right?

This is fun mom!

And the finished product... delicious!

After cookie baking, we had naps and then it was off to church which was PACKED.  We barely could all sit together but the kids were well behaved and the church beautiful.  After, I was able to snap a few pictures in front of the tree.

And this was the tree after Santa came!

We had a nice Christmas Eve because Baba and Casey came to spend the night at our house so we could all be together early on Christmas morning.  We had a full house with all of us plus 5 dogs!  On Christmas morning, the kids were so excited.  They really got into Christmas this year and Santa Claus and opening presents.  Here are just a few pictures of opening presents.  We had a very Merry Christmas as I hope all of you did.  A few more posts of our extended Christmas are coming so it's not over yet!

Caitlin's first gift...

A baby doll!

Evan opening

Caitlin wouldn't put down that baby the rest of the present opening!

Evan got a new turtle for his room. The old one broke just before Christmas so good thing we told Candy Cane (our elf) that he needed a new one!

And Caitlin got her own lady bug for her room (NOTE: with two, you MUST have two of everything, at least at these ages).

Baba and Casey opening

Attempt at Christmas PJ picture but they were too enthralled with our new Cars 2 DVD to care.  Merry Christmas!